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Monday, September 28, 2015

Getting Reviews

My giveaway for the $10 Amazon gift card is CLOSED. I will be announcing the winner in my newsletter tomorrow!

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One thing all authors want? Reviews.
But getting them can be hard, especially if you’re new and relatively
unknown.

I don’t have hundreds of reviews for my
books. Fact is, many of the authors who are regular visitors here have
far more reviews than I do. I know this, but I still know a few methods to get reviews.

1.
Use Google Docs to create a form for people to sign up to help you with your
blog tour and make one of the options a review of your new release. Offer them
a PDF or MOBI copy. This is an easy way to get exposure, a review, and a blog
feature all in one.

2.
Ask authors you’re acquainted with if they know good reviewers. Chances are they do, and the reviewers they know are probably awesome.

3.
Search blogs and other sites for reviewers. Fact is, there are COUNTLESS book
review blogs out there, which means you can find an infinite amount of
bloggers/reviewers to ask for a review.

TIP #1:
Check their guidelines to make sure they are accepting books for review, what
genres they accept, what formats they like, whether or not they’ll post the
review on Amazon and Goodreads, and how they treat reviews. Every reviewer and
review site is different.

TIP #2:
Send an email with a blurb, all information they ask for, and the file if they
need it. Then wait to hear back. It could take 2-3 months before you get a
review.

TIP #3:
Check out Manic Readers. Sign up for free,
add your book(s) to your profile, and request a review. You’ll be able to
select from a long list of reviewers in the depot.

TIP #4: You can also try The Indie View's reviewer list. (Thanks, Lidy!)

4.
Check out Goodreads. There are many groups for authors and readers in every
genre. Many of these groups have a forum for authors to request reviews. Submit
your info to these in the form of a comment or a new topic.

TIP #4:
You may not get anyone interested or you may get many. Make sure, before you
send a copy of your book, that you reiterate the genre and length to make
sure they are fine with it.

TIP #5:
Don’t send your book to just anyone who wants to review it. I got a request
from someone in a Goodreads group who said he wanted a swap for his book that
is about...get this...bad reviews he's given authors. Um, really? No thanks!

5.
Submit to Amazon Top Reviewers. Go HERE and check out reviewer profiles for ones that
sound like the right fit for your book. Check under their contact info and send
a polite email. Make sure to give them the blurb and all the relevant
information about your book (length, genre, etc.), tell them you’ll give them a
free copy, ask them to let you know if they are interested and thank them for
their time.

84 comments:

I've gotten reviews from Goodreads and by posting a review ad on Bookblogs.ning.co. I'd also created a Google docs form. Even did Google searches and looked at and contacted some of the reviewers on The IndieView reviewer's list. I like some of your suggestions and will try them and hopefully get a few, happy to get 1 or 2, end of the year reviews for my poetry chapbook. Thanks!

Thank you so much for sharing these great tips. I like that you suggested actually contacting reviewers. I thought one had to cross your fingers and hope someone just reviews your book. I will definitely try some of your tips.

Reviews are so difficult to get. I wish I knew a way of getting more. I've submitted to several review sites, but so few reply. I do my best to encourage readers to even just rate books, but even that's hard to do.

Maniac Readers is new to me. Sounds like a great tip (all of them are). I believe that most people don't even think of leaving a review. Readers have no idea how important it is for authors. I wonder if there's a way to train them ;)

And on the list of DON'Ts--don't just send it to people! I have people do that to me sometimes and I am just like "wait, what?" I am happy to offer and read IFF I know someone and have time or IFF the blurb SUPER appeals to me. I am not a person who reviews tons of books. It isn't my format. So it always throws me off when a stranger (or nearly) does that.

I'm still trying to get more than one review! I found out the hard way I'm not the kind of person who can rely on word of mouth to sell and thus get reviews. If I ever hear back from the cover artist I contacted in August and am able to revamp two of my covers by the end of the year, I might try to contact people who review historicals and aren't afraid of long books.

Terrific tips! I’m terrible at getting reviews. My editor sent my book to some news outlets, and from there I received several pro reviews, but the majority of my [very few] reviews have come from requests to book bloggers or running giveaways on Goodreads. I don’t solicit Amazon reviews because I feel their reviews are flawed and unreliable, and it would be hypocritical of me. I focus on Goodreads, where the reviews may sometimes be brutal, but they also display more integrity.

These are really good tips. I'm one of the top reviewers on Amazon, so I get a bazillion review requests. I always like when the email request for reviews are personal - not just some mass email blast.

I have given up on reviews. I tried the online sites but never got back a nibble. And I figured top reviewers like Sherry Ellis get blitzed with requests so I could at least not bother her or others with requests. In fact, I have just about given up on writing. I may ride off into the sunset soon. A fascinating post as always. :-)

WHAT??!! I've sent out many requests. The thing you have to realize is that for every like 20 you send, you might get 1-2 acceptances. But 1-2 is better than none. I hope it's not true that you've given up on writing.

I haven't needed any reviews, but have written plenty of them! I do try to keep my shelfair account and amazon separate (hard to do since amazon now own's shelfair) so I don't get too many review request and I only take on those requests from books I really want to read--but I have received some nice books this way.

And once again, the amazing Lady Chrys has her slender finger on the rapidly beating pulse of her fellow writers and authors! These wonderful tips are quite inspiring and I plan to visit every single site just as soon as I return from my daughter's wedding :-)

These seem like excellent suggestions. I've tried to review books that I've read by bloggers that I know as well as anything else I read, but sometimes it's hard to get motivated to do so. I guess I'm not the only one. I'm surprised by the lack of reviews that some of these authors get.

Another great post with excellent advice. I usually ask for reviews on Face Book and of course from my super friends. My reviews are very few. I need to work harder on this. On the other hand, I review a lot of books. I'm on Amazon's top reviewer list and have around 800 - 900 reviews, forget how many. I get a lot of requests but have to turn most of them down because there's just not time to read them all. Now, off to see what I can do about more reviews for my work. Thanks for the tips.

Excellent ideas, Chrys! Thank you for sharing these. I would love to get more reviews---one can never have too many. I have sent letters to my readers who purchased my book requesting a review. The ones who responded I sent starbucks gift cards as a thank you. Not before the review as that would be bribery :P I will definitely try some of your suggestions. I have had a few women contact me wanting a free print book and in exchange will review on their sites. Both of them disappeared and never reviewed it. I think they just wanted a free book. Trouble is it's costly for me to ship even one book and I felt I really got taken for a ride.

Nope, one can never have too many. I certainly feel like I'm lacking in the review department.

That's sad that they never reviewed your book! I've had a couple of reviewers do the same to me with my eBooks. I email them back to ask for updates or to see if I accidentally missed their review, and nothing.

This is so helpful to anyone wanting to write a book. I had no idea about any of this-I guess my head is up my whazoo when it comes to this but if/when I write that book about my mom, I will know a little more than I knew before, which was nothing.

Reviews are a tricky thing, I ask for them and some folks will do it no problem but many, won't even respond once you ask the question. Now there are so many offering reviews for money, you have to wonder if they aren't boiler plate too! Is anything out there real anymore?

These are great tips. I mostly worked down a list of reviewers and emailed each one personally until I exhausted myself. Thankfully, a good friend who works in publishing gave me a bunch of people to try, and my publisher did an awesome job as well.

All readers are amazing, but ones that leave good reviews are phenomenal.

I think I have both your books on my kindle, waiting for me to read and review. And JH's latest also. Ugh, so many books, so little time.

I have been contacted by authors/promoters to review a book. Sometimes I like reviewing, when I like the story. Other times, its hard. Many authors refuse to write reviews though, so as not to hurt a fellow author's feelings if they did not like the book. So sad that the industry relies on reviews, but so few are willing to put one up.

I always write reviews. I'm lucky because I've never had to write a 1 or 2 star review for an author I know. I do mention things I might not have liked but I do it as gently as possible while highlighting the good.

This is a great, informative post, thanks! I can't use it just yet, but I'm storing things in ye olde noggin. Love what you wrote under the picture. You know, the first Stephen King book I read was in the bathroom. My dad was reading it and had left it in there. I sat up one night when everyone was sleeping, sprawled on the laminate floor with the light on and the door closed, reading It. We won't discuss how old I was.

How do I get reviews? I just post online and see if anyone reads the selected chapter I've highlighted. Wow, that guy was willing to swap a review with you and it was almost a given he'd likely give you a bad review too? Why would someone even do that?I mean what's the point? To just be mean?

YES! I have no idea why someone would do that but he apparently thought I was too desperate to notice or stupid. I hate it when people are mean to authors in reviews for no reason other than to cut them down and apparently that's what this guy liked to do.